Both my Mother and Father were raised in the countryside in South Carolina a few “country miles” from one another. My Dad was born at the hands of “Mum Annie”in Hampton, S.C. and my Mom, a twin, was born in her home also, in Estill, South Carolina.
This past week, my dad’s side had the family reunion in Early Branch, S. .C, a neighboring town near Hampton. The family reunion was extra special this year because after meeting with the family, we all went to Papa’s old farm house and were able to relive memories from our childhood.
For many years, my Papa’s youngest daughter, Urbanna, lived there into her 90’s and we didn’t have opportunity to walk the halls as freely because it was still someone’s home but now, my cousin, who inherited the home has opened it up to the family to walk through, poke around, look around , “ooohh and ahhhh” and we did. We loved this opportunity and we loved Paul for this because those memories are treasures to all of us.
Charlotte, my cousin and Paul’s daughter, took on the task to basically restore the old farm house as it once was… Her father, Paul and mother, Judy said she had worked tirelessly on the project which was certainly obvious. It was really neat to see it clean, organized, with beds made, and looking like a real old farm house. Everyone’s pictures were all over the house. In almost every room, you would walk in and see an image of yourself at age 6, 10, 15, etc. My Aunt Urbanna was a serious photographer back in the day and left behind literal thousands and thousands of photographs, loose, in albums, framed, unframed and even some slides.
Charlotte had collected sets of things and put them together including a rubberbanded bunch of letters that people had written over the years. They were in the secretary in the “parlor”. She had them to give to those who had written them all of those years ago.
We were able to get a few treasures ourselves. I got a blue quilt and my sister Kathy got a Bible of Papa’s and Daddy’s Army hat. We dared not ask for the old quilt that had everyone’s names sewn in it but that was indeed the treasure of the day (other than Papa’s Bible) in my mind. It was a neat experience to have a lot of the cousins together sharing all of those memories and talking about wash tubs, no electricity in the house and pot bellied stoves and yes, I remember those days even if I was a youngin’!
Josie
